Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to accelerate the diagnosis of people with bladder cancer.

In December 2016, NHS England announced that over £200 million will be made available to Cancer Alliances over the next two years to support earlier and faster diagnosis alongside measures to support people living with and beyond cancer. The Faster Diagnosis Standard to be rolled out across England by 2020, will ensure that every patient referred for an investigation with a suspicion of cancer is diagnosed or has cancer ruled out within 28 days. The Faster Diagnosis Standard aims to create a more patient-centred access standard for cancer, focussing Waiting Times measurements on what is most important to the patient.

Public Health England’s Be Clear on Cancer ‘Blood in Pee’ campaign aims to raise public awareness of visible haematuria (blood in the urine) as a possible early symptom of bladder and kidney cancer and encourages individuals with those symptoms to go to the doctor as soon as possible. The campaigns used a variety of media to reach a wide audience and the messages were also targeted through the Health and Safety Executive networks to reach those people who having worked with certain occupational chemicals could be at a higher risk of bladder cancer.

A broader campaign approach has been developed to raise awareness of a range of abdominal symptoms that can indicate a wider number of cancers, including bladder, and also encouraged people to visit the doctor promptly with these symptoms. This regional pilot ran from 9 February until 31 March 2017 in the East and West Midlands.

The UK National Screening Committee last reviewed the evidence for bladder cancer in 2015 and concluded that screening should not be offered as a population screening programme because the test marker, urine dip stick, is not reliable. This would lead to large numbers of people being falsely identified as having cancer when they do not and exposing many people to unnecessary tests and procedures. The next review is scheduled in three years, 2018/19, or earlier in light of any new significant published evidence.